GM eyeing new buyouts?

Even as buyouts are pushing UAW membership below 500,000 — one-third its historic peak — Wall Street analysts said Thursday that General Motors Corp. is looking to further reduce its U.S. hourly workforce before 2010.

Troy Clarke, president of GM North America, met with 14 analysts in New York on Wednesday, giving them the impression that GM may consider more buyouts for unionized workers, beyond the 34,400 leaving under the UAW and International Union of Electrical Workers buyout programs this year.

JPMorgan auto analyst Himanshu Patel, who was at the meeting, said the buyouts could happen as early as 2008 and might emulate the offers of cross-town rival Ford Motor Co.

"GM has studied Ford's attrition program, and we sensed an implicit statement that certain aspects of Ford's more successful buyout program could have been implemented at GM," Patel said in a research note to investors.